RUMFORD – Finding lost children or elders or suspects on the run will be a bit easier for the Rumford Police Department, courtesy of a $10,553 grant from the Department of Homeland Security.

Acting police Chief Mark Cayer said the department received the money to purchase thermal imaging equipment designed specifically for police work.

“It will focus on heat produced by bodies,” he said.

He said communities Rumford’s size aren’t able to buy such equipment so the grant is particularly important.

The unit is hand-held. Part of the grant money is for training an officer to use it.

Cayer said Sgt. Jamie Bernard, the department’s firearms instructor, will attend training in New Orleans on May 29 and 30; he will then train other officers.

“We’ll use it a few times a year. We won’t use it everyday, but when we need it, it will be a vital piece of equipment,” said Cayer.

The department received a grant a few years ago for advanced equipment from the Department of Army Electronics Proving Ground, said Cayer.

That money, at $6,000, paid for night-vision equipment. Cayer said it is used regularly by the night patrol officers and as a surveillance tool.

He said the department aims to apply for a specialty piece of equipment each year.

The only other area emergency department to receive funding under the latest round of federal Department of Homeland Security grants was the Auburn Police Department, which received $7,416 to purchase modular portable video equipment, according to a press release jointly issued by U.S. Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins.